Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-28
GAMES OF CHANCE.
Scientific Rules for Winning and Losing
With Dice and Coins-One Writer'S Odd
Theory.

Scientific Rules for Winning ana Losing
with Dice and Coins-One Writer'S Il
Theory.
Many men have attempted to reduce
betting on games of chance to a mathe-
NAUTICAL certainty, and many a man has
studied ont q System" how to beat this
or that game. The simplest games of
chance are tossing coppers or throwing
dice, the former being for the simpler of
the two. In tossing coin the chances
are said TO be even, for it will fall either
heads up or tails up, there being but two
chances. In betting that tails, for ms
lance, would turn up, the better might
lose once, twice, three or more times in
succession, but gamesters believe there is
an Invaluable law governing the game,
whereby if played all day the coin would
fall heads up as often as tails. But, Of
course, mathematicians cannot assist you
to determine after heads has turned once
when it will turn again.
Some devotees have studied the thing
out carefully and make the following
unique computation in odd chances: The
question is, How would you bet to win,
betting that in every two throws heads
will turn up both times? In two throws
let II represent heads and L tails, one of
the following combinations would occur:
II and II, I and T, II and Il or Il and II.
1t is evident that the chance is one out of
four that any one combination will appear,
as there are luur combinations, and one Is
as likely to appear as the other. You are
betting on H and H, and will have to bet
81 to 81 in order to come out even, and 81
to 81 to win anything. That H, II, H will
appear the chances are one out OF eight,
and H, II, II, II, one out of 16.
Throwing dice is more complicated.
What are the chances in two throws that
any face, for instance, the ace, will come
up twice?
Counting up the possible combinations,
|, IL, 2; 6, 3, etc; then D, LIS, 2; 5,3,
etc, You will find there are 80 cases, and
in only one do you find both aces appear
ing; hence the chances are | in SO and the
odds So to |.
1t has also been computed what ones
chance would be in throwing three dice to
have one ace appear. In three throws the
chances are 81 out of 2l6, and in four
throws GIL out 1893. The law does not
say that if three dice be thrown PIC times
an ace will appear in just 81 throws, but
the longer you throw the more closely will
the result approximate to 81 TO every PIG.
Ii a man bets You that an ace will appear
each time You throw three dice it does not
mean that you will win l25 out of 2l6,
but the longer you play the closer will
your winning be in the proportion given
-l25 to your opponents 81.
OF course, there are those who will argue
that such mathematical accuracy in games
of chance is nonsense, and that John
Smith may throw 800 times before turning
up an ace, while Sam Jones, with better
luck" will throw -four aces in succession.
But this does not prove the law a failure,
for one may throw his aces the first of a
long series of throws, and the other
toward the last.
That there is something in these laws Is
proven by mathematicians who have given
the matter much attention. They 20 TO
prove by higher mathematics that the
chances are 50 and so. Take from u deck
of cards a king, queen and ace and shuttle
lutils w udl NlIdlOC vi M lCC VII lbp'
One in three, yOu answer. Then what
chance of an ace twice in succession? This
your mathematician proves as follows:
There are nine combinations and only
one has three aces. 1t is certain that
either king, queen or ace will be drawn,
i. G., 1-3x2-3-l, or certainly Il 1929 =
(sQuared)-I.9x4 9x4-9. How is this to be
interpreted? Thus: One-ninth shows the
chance that an given card will be drawn
twice in succession; 40 show the chances
that at least one Of the two draws will be
that given card i e., shown by the product
of 1-3 aud 2-3), and 10 show the chances
that neither draw will contain that card
Il. C., the product of % by ITSELF. The
rule Of 1-3x2.3 will similarly show the
chances Of any card three times in success
sion, etc.
One writer in discussing the game of
chance and its relations TO mathematics
says that it is not difficult to prove the fol-
lowing 10y mathematics; If one rulesa floor
with parallel and equidistant lines, and
takes s. uniform stick whose length equals
The distance between any two lines, and
losses up the stick, the whole number of
throws and the number of times ii falls on
or touches a line will be to each other as
the circumference of a circle is to its diam
eteT.
He claims that he once arranged these
conditions, and keeping count OF the re-
suits, tried it during his leasure hours till
the total reached II, 500 throws, and the
ratio was true to four decimal places and
within one of the fifth. If the law Of
chance holds so true in so complex a case
IA this, how much more certainly is prac.
tice going to accord with theory in such a
cards.